I own my ex-employer’s domain name. What should I do with it? (updated)

I got laid off a few weeks ago. Work was slow. The company has been going through some tough times. I was actually happy to leave.

A year or so ago, when I still had a job, I mentioned to my boss that our company should buy its “actual” domain name. The company is Allstate Installations, but their web site domain name is allstateinstall.com. I suggested they buy allstateinstallations.com because that is what anyone in their right mind would search for / type in the address bar when looking for our company. He thought that was a great idea and would think about it. I sent him reminder e-mails. I talked to him again in person. Nothing came of it.

So I bought it myself and politely forwarded the traffic to the company’s webpage.

Now they have laid me off and I’m wondering what I should do with the domain. Here are a few ideas with their associated scores. Please let me know if you have any better ideas.

Hand the domain over to my companyThis is the right thing to do. It’s also the most boring.Score: D

Forward to a competitor's websiteAllstate Installations has several competitors. This would be a real F-U to the old boss. Score: B-Forward to pornAnother obvious idea, but the real detail is in what porn site you choose. Score: (site / score) playboy(dot)com / D+ beastality(dot)com / A hugeblackcocks(dot)com / B+ fistinglessons(dot)net / B clownporn(dot)net/ A++

Forward to a photo site with photoshopped pictures of boss in compromising positionsThis is a great idea, but the only photos I have of him are of him in compromising positions and most of those photos are copyrighted.Score: C

Let the domain to expire and allow anyone reading this to buy it and do what they pleaseThis is the only real democratic option.Score: A

{Author's note: One I did not think of was "Sell it to anyone that will buy it." I have received a few bids. All for way more than the site is worth. Right now the bidding is at $950. Step right up!! Let's see what my soul is worth.Score: $$}

{Author's note 2: As many of you have suggested, I am a douche. But not that kind of douche. I am in the process of transferring the domain over, free of charge. My old boss and co-workers received several e-mails from strangers warning of this post and my possible doucheness. I think that is pretty cool of them. I would hope someone would do the same for me.}

(Author's note 3: I attempted to transfer the website to my company. They wanted me to track down all the information and call their provider to set it up. I said I didn't have the time and to e-mail me when they had it figured out. They did not and I let the domain expire. Per their old website you can see that things did not end well. The partners split and not they run separate, competing companies.)

116 comments:

Gather your statistics on the amount of traffic you have been forwarding to the company website and approach your former company with an affiliate proposal that will allow them to purchase that traffic from you.

If they don't agree to an affiliate arrangement, simply drop some standard boiler plate text on the company's skills, offerings, etc. on your page, put a link to them at the bottom and put some Google AdSense ads on the same page.

In the UK option C could get you into real hot water for setting out to maliciously damage somebody's business. The competitor would probably not want this to happen either, lest they get dragged into the subsequent legal fireworks.

Fun though the earlier options seem, probably just letting it quietly expire is the thing to do :)

What I really like, though, is the way you've associated your former employer's name, url and the phrases "hugeblackcocks" and "fistinglessons" on this page. That's gonna look real classy in their search results. Well played, sir!

I think that it is a valuable exercise to look upon the dark side of human nature.

We have all ready coordinated to hand it over, all without asking for compensation except for maybe a Bacardi and coke. I think it is interesting to see what other people think could have happened otherwise.

Assuming that you don't care about these people or their opinions...I would say you send them a nice little ransom note and say that if they don't buy the domain from you for $xxx, THEN you'll redirect it to porn/competitors.

Send them a letter stating that you own and control the domain, and they need to reimburse you for the costs involved and take it off your hands. If they don't, it will expire and anyone from a competitor to a porn company could get their hands on it - that should get their attention.

If you offer to sell it to your employer, or mention the company on the website in an unflattering light, they could accuse you of blackmail. I would say just let it expire, but in the meantime, park the domain on a service like Sedo.com and try to make some ad revenue. You might get some ads for Allstate Insurance.

I say use it against them, punish them for their stupidity you tried numerous times to get them to transfer it and they didn't so it serves them right. Looking at their site it appears like not much of a loss anyhow.

While it would be "funny" to forward it to some "other" site, the high road would be to offer it to your former company at the cost you spent for it. Anything else you do could get you a bad reputation. Depending on what field you are in and what kind of job you are looking for in the future, that is a black mark that you don't want following you around. Especially if you left your company on good terms, and there is no reason to be "malicious.

You should copy the current website and insert some minor changes... like you bank-account number on the company's billing page. Or post fake news messages like: "Come to XXX by noon and the first one will get a brand new car."

Teach 'em a lesson and burn it to the ground! Or just forward it to a photoshopped logo that suggests the company does something illegal, place anonymous call to the feds, which equals a win win scenario!

I say you hold it ransom if they didn't give you a severance package. hold the secondary for a fair amount, what it may have cost you register it multiplied by about 25 times, and the primary for about 50 to 60 times the amount it cost you to register it.

Who paid for the site? Did you merely register the site in your name, but they paid for it? If they can prove, or rather you cannot disprove, they paid for the site, I believe they can make the case they own it.

Even if it is registered in your name, you were acting as an agent of theirs during it's purchase. I would consult an attorney before doing anything malicious.

Oh, and by the way. I think it speaks volumes toward your personal, professional, and ethical character that you would consider acting maliciously toward a former employer. Losing a job happens to everyone. Try to be a man and move on with your life, not burning any bridges as you go.

Do you really think a future employer, if they hear about this, would ever put trust in you and hire you? I wouldn't.

If they decline, create a pretty website about unicorns and add the line 'if you were looking for [insert company name] instead, click here' and wait untill they contact you again to buy the domain name (at a now somewhat higher price ofcourse).

During a due diligence process of an prospective employee - if we determine that they ever did option b,c,d, or e - we would drop them on the spot. But I doubt it would come to that since documenting about it on your blog would get your resume thrown in the shredder.

Wow, I didn't know this many people actually read your site. I'd offer it back to them, and if you don't hear anything, ad-sense it up!

I would also like to point out that many of the comments seem to be coming from people who have never met the Holy Juan, and as such, have never revelled in the joy of the perma-sarcasmness that his aura provides.

In line with the comments from Yoshi, you may want to edit the company name out of the post. A quick google search for the company and your true identity, places this post at the top of the search results

You might as well either let it expire, or hand it over to them outright. If you try to do something malicious, they can sue you for defamation, or if they can prove that a significant amount of traffic comes from the domain you own, you could be required by a court to hand it over to them. If the company had existed this long with the domain they currently have, then they won't see the one you own as a value to them and you won't be able to get a big payoff from them, even if you can prove the majority of the traffic is coming through that domain.

Another alternative is to simply turn off the forwarding. They already own a working domain, so just shut it off and if they want it bad enough, let them make the first move.

You can park your domain and display advertising. Try sedo.com and that should be free traffic on your old company name but without any obvious attack against it. It's just monetizing a good domain, it's not competition. They too can advertise on your domain so you're fair as long as you're getting payed.

This happened with the company I just left. The partner held the domains and decided to leave. Legally, the leaving partner does not "own" the domain in any way, only to try to hand on to something of which they are no longer a part. The domain is required for the normal operation of the business. A federal suit was filed. Very expensive for the domain holder.

You may posses the domain name, but you don't own the name. Renewing the name might be seen as a bad-faith registration since you are no longer with the company. The safest bet would be to transfer it to the company for a nominal fee if they want it or let it expire. You probably will not find the consequences of any other action very funny.

I think you should make sure that your ownership does not run out. Go to your registrar and buy another year.

Then email the owner of the company and offer it to him for sale at one year of your salary.

If he passes, go to sitepoint.com and offer it for sale there.

Also, you can put up a website that communicates your view of the company from an insider's perspective. For every observation, make sure you say from my experience and perspective it seems to me like .....

You might want to do this before you ask your former employer to buy the site.

If you sell the site, please send me a contribution for my continuing work in creative problem solving....I have been working on trying to help people to thrive even more for over twenty years now. Your contribution from you profit from my idea will help give me more free time to think about the dynamics of surviving/thriving and creative problem redefinition.

how about SELL it to your company. ANY other option (besides giving it to them) would mean you'll never get another job, as you would be a complete asshole...and your old company would probably make sure that any new company that calls for a reference knows it.

You should make an amazing website, very classy and spin the marketing towards yourself and your skills. DO NOT bash, nor try to blackmail the site -- they can find you via ISP numbers and you'll surely be screwed and possibly sued! Make it great and drive possible work your way.

I quit a position that was very lucrative (over disagreements with my ex-boss). They refused to give out info regarding how my clients could find me. So, later on I bought the company's exact name and use it to help my clients find my new whereabouts. Nothing wrong with that, since I was the main reason people used to visit my former place of employment. Be smart my friend.

I am in a similar position. During the "sunrise" period for the .eu domain, my employer did not apply for inghams.eu. As it was fairly obvious that I wasn't going to be able to buy my prefered domain name when the free-for-all time arrived, for which I had paid a pre-registrations fee, I put inghams.eu as a second choice as I had a use for it. I use it for photographs of events that I have been to - mainly people's leaving dos and Christmas parties.

Part of my thinking was that it was better that I had it rather than a competitor or a domain squatter and no one in the management structure would have listened to me if I suggested we buy it - the suggestion would have only been passed onto the IT department with a query when it it really a marketing department issue. After all we are a UK company owned by the Swiss company operating in Europe for goodness sake.

There is a funny twist to this tale. Within the company, the name resolver has been, to put it politely, misconfigured, so that if you use a web browser in the office you are misdirected to inghams.co.uk

All you goody-two-shoes saying "you have no character blah blah blah" need to get off your high horse and shut up!

And anyone who says they wouldn't hire him simply for *considerring* all his options you are naive if you don't think your employees consider, or *do*, worse things on a daily basis. You may even be repressed and unwilling to admit to your own dark fantasies. Typical HR bozos. Who would WANT to work for you??

To the poster: I'm sure you'll do something harmless, and I hope it is also lucrative! Business is business.

Forgive your boss, and offer to sell it to him. Try to make good with him. In the end you will feel better. If you are a jerk to him he is not going to let you walk all over him and will try to get you back. Be the bigger man. See http://www.theforgivenessproject.com/ for inspiration.

I have to agree with Smail...anyone who knows and adores holyjuan knows he is an "Arrogant Bastard" Google it and you will find out exactly how much of one he really is! To know him and his style is to truly be in the presence of greatness!!!Anonymous (The real one)

SERIOUSLY, just remove this blog post. chances are this will come back to haunt you, esp with some of the comments that are associated with this.

Remember, the internet is not private. your old boss, future employers, etc.... WILL SEE THIS.

i am not sure of the legal ramifications of even suggesting this. if you ever get sued by your former employer, it is likely that this could be used as evidence against you (I am not a lawyer though..... so who knows).

I would suggest that you check your contract from your ex-employer and make sure your actions don't fall under a non-compete clause or something. Also see if the contract binds the domain to them because it was done for them. If both of these are in the clear, I would do this:

1. Get your statistics together and get it all nice looking. You know, make it so your club-footed boss would be able to understand it. A box of crayons might help.

2. do some research on web advertising. Chances are your ex-company's page didn't have any (or very little) advertising for anyone else on their page. This gives you a great opportunity. Even adding only google adsense or click link add or even kontera text-links, you can make money.

3. Present your former employer with the idea that they can buy the domain from you for $1500.

Let them know that its only fair because that money represents the value of the work you put into the site and their company. Show to them the highest bids you have received for the site to prove that other people are interested.

Also mention that you would be willing to keep their site running and allow them to change their content and update the site, but you would block them from accessing the admin of the domain so they could not lock you out.

Because this would provide you with no compensation as-is, you tell them you plan on putting google adsense, and other web advertising on their site.

This would pay you according to the traffic they already get and you don't have to do a thing.

4. Sign-up for GoogleAdsense, click-link-ads, kontera text links, and/or any other ad companies to make money.

5. Sit back and wait for the checks to roll in. If the traffic on the site is sizeable, you might be able to retire early. ;)

Holyjuan, Is this a record for responses to one of your postings? Anyway, I agree with an earlier response - you should delete this post as it may cause you problems in the future. Good luck with finding new employment.

Since you bought the domain on your own without any input from your former company, it would be yours to do with as you see fit. If you choose to forward traffic to a porn site then go for it. Its your domain.

oh come the %@ck on!!! you bought this site on your own accord and both your boss and your company are idiots for not doing this themselves. don't do anything malicious, but don't just hand the freaking thing over!

SELL it to them, you need the money, remember... they just laid you off! look it's basic supply and demand here, they want something you have, something you bought on your own. So... tell them that you are going to auction the site and that they are free to place a bid.

they're a for-profit company, i'm sure they'll understand, this is business here, they sure didn't give a %@ck when they told you that they no longer needed you around.

I bought the domain name my company owns back before they had the copyright/trademark on it. It was purchased and renewed with my credit card and never reimbursed. They just gave me my 2 weeks notice. I'm a little pissed.

The domain (actually a few) are in my name, but so is the whole mail system for 70+ people - another guy has access and believes he's the true owner, but he's got limited abilities and I control his account, not vice-versa.

My thinking is in 3 weeks time when they figure out what happened, I turn around and ask $15000 for the name, not the measly $1500 one guy on this forum mentioned. If they don't want to pay, something completely out of my control may take the site down. They've got 3500 people that logon that site daily. It CAN'T go down or their SCREWED.

"Be nice and do the right thing?" Give me a break. Business is business. Cute and happy business like the one Ward Cleaver worked for are gone. The evolution of capitalism is things getting uglier as margins narrow.